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Greenspun Hall, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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With more than 300 million daily users, Instagram has rapidly become one of the most widely used social networking apps worldwide. This study investigates relationships between motivations for using Instagram, whether users are portraying their true­selves and how their usage affects life satisfaction and well­being. A quantitative survey was used to collect data from 200 students at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas students. Participants were asked to provide answers regarding their habits for using Instagram, whether their online portrayal of self reflected their true self and determine overall life satisfaction. The motives studied in this research include: interpersonal communication, entertainment, information seeking, diversion and identity (Sheldon and Bryant 2015; Ting 2014; Papacharissi and Mendelson 2011; Sundar and Limperos 2013). The research question asked if there was a relationship between gender and usage of Instagram, results indicated there was less than one percent difference in usage among gender. Results support the hypothesis that there was a significant, positive relationship between the presentation of true self and life satisfaction. Other notable findings include the merging of two uses and gratification factors to become identity and social affinity; negative relationships between true­self and escape motive; and a negative relationship between the escape motive and life satisfaction.

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Apr 24th, 1:00 PMApr 24th, 4:00 PM

Presentation of True­-self, Motive and Life Satisfaction on Instagram among College-­aged Females

Greenspun Hall, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

With more than 300 million daily users, Instagram has rapidly become one of the most widely used social networking apps worldwide. This study investigates relationships between motivations for using Instagram, whether users are portraying their true­selves and how their usage affects life satisfaction and well­being. A quantitative survey was used to collect data from 200 students at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas students. Participants were asked to provide answers regarding their habits for using Instagram, whether their online portrayal of self reflected their true self and determine overall life satisfaction. The motives studied in this research include: interpersonal communication, entertainment, information seeking, diversion and identity (Sheldon and Bryant 2015; Ting 2014; Papacharissi and Mendelson 2011; Sundar and Limperos 2013). The research question asked if there was a relationship between gender and usage of Instagram, results indicated there was less than one percent difference in usage among gender. Results support the hypothesis that there was a significant, positive relationship between the presentation of true self and life satisfaction. Other notable findings include the merging of two uses and gratification factors to become identity and social affinity; negative relationships between true­self and escape motive; and a negative relationship between the escape motive and life satisfaction.